Fraley: Top Fuel champion yet to get up to speed

Brown’s bid to repeat hits another bump at soggy Texas Motorplex

ENNIS — A steady rain on Friday increased the pressure
on Antron Brown, defending champion in the NHRA’s Top Fuel division.

With the day’s schedule in the AAA Texas Fall Nationals washed out, Brown
will have only two chances on Saturday at the Texas Motorplex to do what he
could not do in four tries last week: qualify for the elimination rounds. That
stunning development, a first for Brown since the final race of 2008, added to
what has been an uneven season.

“You have no room for error,” said Brown, who has handled four two-round
qualifiers this season. “That’s the crazy part of what we do. … You have to be
in that certain window to make it happen.

“When you have only two runs, you have to have some good guys, which we do.
Our crew chiefs proved they are the best in the business by winning the
championship. We’ve got to get on the right side of it as a team.”

That has been a challenge for Brown in the Matco Tools dragster of Don
Schumacher Racing.

Brown opened as if a second consecutive title were in easy reach. He made the
finals in three of the first seven races, winning two titles and going 16-4 in
that span.

Everything changed in a hurry.

Brown fell into a qualifying slump. He went into the elimination rounds in
the bottom half of the draw in four consecutive races, a first for his
career.

Brown also had problems getting out of the first round, winning only three
times in 11 chances. Before this, Brown was a remarkable 210-54 in first-round
races.

The failure to qualify in the opening round of the Countdown to the
Championship was the most challenging development yet.

Some of this can be attributed to a makeover of a team that had four members
retire after last year. The team has had some missed setups, such as for the
qualifying in Charlotte last week.

Some of this can be attributed to the misfortunes such as having three
first-round opponents beat him with career-best efforts.

“We’ve got to get back in our groove,” Brown said. “We’ve got the
performance. It’s getting in that niche. You’ve got to be in the first spot in
the right time. … This year it seems like we’ve been in the wrong spot in every
situation we can be in. It’s been the nature of the beast this year.”

The weather threw another wrench in the preparations for Brown’s team.

Brown launched his run to the title last year by winning this race on a hot
late-summer weekend. The team had bundles of information from Brown’s eight runs
to help it prepare for the concrete track.

All of that goes out of the window with an expected drop in temperatures into
the low 80s. The plan, Brown said, will be to start with an effective run that
will put him among the 16 racers who will advance and go for a low number on the
second try. A total of 20 teams have entered.

“It’s been one of those years when we’re seeing what we’re made of,” Brown
said. “We’ve been tested and tried at every race we’ve been to. … Everybody’s
still got their head up. That’s what keeps me going.”

He needs all of that for the remaining five races of the Countdown. Brown is
ninth in the standings, 124 points behind Top Fuel leader Spencer Massey of Fort
Worth. Brown remembers that he had a 120-point lead with two races remaining
last year and won the title by seven points over teammate Tony Schumacher.

“We’ve got plenty of time, but we can’t make any more mistakes,” Brown
said.

Last week’s mistakes turned Brown into a spectator on the final day. It was,
he said, no place for a champion to be.

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